When, in the Operating System (OS) of a computer system, a failure has occurred that is too serious to continue processing, data at the time of the failure is collected so as to find the cause of the failure of the corresponding OS. The collected data is stored in a storage device. The stored data is typically called a memory dump.
As a collection mechanism for this memory dump, there has been a method where when a memory dump collection program has been preliminarily installed and a failure occurrence has been detected, the memory dump collection program is activated owing to an interrupt from an input mechanism or the like, and memory data is collected. For example, in Linux, a crash kernel is caused to continuously remain on a memory in advance, the crash kernel being used for outputting a kernel dump in a kernel serving as the nucleus of an OS. When a kernel panic has occurred, processing transfers from a usual kernel to the crash kernel, and the kernel dump is acquired.
In addition, as another memory data collection mechanism, there has been a method where a computer system is reset with holding memory data at the time of a failure, a memory data collection program different from a routinely operating OS is activated after the reset, and the held memory data is collected. The reset is a type of interrupt. So as to reset the computer system with holding this memory data, usually a function called Warm Reset is used that does not turn off the power supply of the computer system at the time of the reset.
As related arts, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2009-129101, 2007-94537, and so forth may be cited.